LAST UPDATE | 10 Oct 2023

EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT Ursula von der Leyen has condemned “any act of deliberate destruction of critical infrastructure”, after a gas pipeline leak between Finland and Estonia was detected.

Helsinki said today it suspected external intervention was behind the leak and had received support from NATO in its investigation.

“The ongoing investigation is based on the assumption of a possible deliberate act… We stand in full solidarity with Finland and Estonia,” von der Leyen said in a statement after speaking with the leaders of both countries.

Earlier, the Finnish President said that a leak leading to the shutdown of a natural gas pipeline from Estonia to Finland this weekend was probably caused by an “external” element.

“It is likely that the damage to both the gas pipeline and the telecommunications cable is the result of external activity,” president Sauli Niinisto said today.

The head of state said the cause of the damage was not yet clear and both countries were cooperating in an ongoing investigation.

Niinisto said he had been in touch with NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg and NATO was ready to assist in the investigation.

“NATO is sharing information and stands ready to support Allies concerned,” Stoltenberg said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

Finland’s gas network operator, state-owned Gasgrid, said on Sunday that the Balticconnector pipeline had been shut down over a suspected leak.

The operator said “an unusual drop in pressure” had been noticed in the pipeline running along the seabed of the Gulf of Finland.

Gasgrid added that the Finnish gas system was stable, with supply secured through a floating liquefied natural gas terminal (LNG) in Inkoo.

In late September 2022, a series of underwater blasts ruptured three of the four pipelines that make up Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, a major conduit for Russian natural gas exports to Western Europe, spewing gas into the Baltic Sea.

Because the leaks occurred in their exclusive economic zones, Denmark and Sweden opened probes into the attack, as did Germany.

All three countries have kept a tight lid on their investigations.

Commissioned in 2019, the Balticconnector has been the only gas import channel to Finland, apart from LNG, since Russian imports were halted in May 2022, following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russia stopped supplying gas after Finland refused to pay in rubles, a condition imposed on “unfriendly countries” — including European Union member states — as a way to sidestep Western financial sanctions against Russia’s central bank.

Natural gas accounts for around five percent of Finland’s energy consumption, mainly used in industry and combined heat and power production.

– © AFP 2023